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| | The Wind Done Gone: A Novel |  | Author: Alice Randall
Publisher: Mariner Books
Category: Book
List Price: $12.00
Buy New: $5.92
You Save: $6.08 (51%)
New (3) Used (7) from $4.28
Avg. Customer Rating:  227 reviews
Sales Rank: 1118896
Format: Bargain Price
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 224
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 8 x 4.9 x 0.8
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.6
ASIN: B0015MLOYI
Publication Date: April 8, 2002
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
In a brilliant rejoinder and an inspired act of literary invention, Alice Randall explodes the world created in Margaret Mitchell's famous 1936 novel, the work that more than any other has defined our image of the antebellum South. Imagine simply that the black characters peopling that world were completely different, not egregious, one-dimensional stereotypes but fully alive, complex human beings. And then imagine, quite plausibly, that at the center of this world moves an illegitimate mulatto woman, and that this woman, Cynara, Cinnamon, or Cindy -- beautiful and brown -- gets to tell her story.
Cindy is born into a world in which she is unacknowledged by her plantation-owning father and passed over by her mother in favor of her white charges. Sold off like so much used furniture, she eventually makes her way back to Atlanta to take up with a prominent white businessman, only to leave him for an aspiring politician of her own color. Moving from the Deep South to the exhilarating freedom of Reconstruction Washington, with its thriving black citizenry of statesmen, professionals, and strivers of every persuasion, Cindy experiences firsthand the promise of the new era at its dizzying peak, just before it begins to slip away.
Alluding to events in Mitchell's novel but ingeniously and ironically transforming them, THE WIND DONE GONE is an exquisitely written, emotionally complex story of a strong, resourceful black woman breaking away from the damaging world of the Old South to emerge into her own, a person capable of not only receiving but giving love, as daughter, lover, and mother. A passionate love story, a wrenching portrait of a tangled mother-daughter relationship, and a book that gives a voice to those history has silenced, THE WIND DONE GONE is an elegant literary achievement of significant political force and a novel whose time has finally come.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 222 more reviews...
 Awesome idea gone bad October 1, 2008
This was probably the most anticipated book, for me. I couldn't wait to read it. Well, I liked the book much more in my imagination, what I thought it would be about. The hype surrounding this book is for nought! As an African American Gone With the Wind lover, I was truly excited about reading the story from the other perspective. How disappointing! I'm not sure why the Margaret Mitchell Estate had such a problem with this book, seeing that it doesn't even resemble the story at all. It is badly written, doesn't stay true to the events in the original, and never fleshes out any of the characters! Don't waste your time or money.
 This is just to subtle for some people September 14, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
I read this in 2001 and again just recently. In the tradition of Tony Morrison, the inferences are subtle and many. The writing is also exquisite and brief. If you were a fan of Gone With The Wind and took the time to read the novel, you can see where this novel pushes back against the idyllic mythology of a once proud and happy south where negros sang and danced and capered their way through an endless summer of work and play. Like Toni Morrison, Alice Randall is a brutal observer of the truth. This is not a rant against slavery, or a rant against racism - it's the truth as Alice Walker's character sees it; unflinchingly crisp, clear and poetic.
If you are a fan of Gregory Maguire, this is for you. I have heard English people observe that irony is lost on Americans. Judging by the preceding reviews, I find new truth in that sentiment.
TWDG is actually a really good book June 7, 2008
After reading some of the other reviews, i felt compelled to defend this book...
Yes, you will be disappointed if you're expecting a hilarious novel that utterly pokes fun at the ridiculous portrayal of the slave and slave/master relationships described in GWTW.
Yes, you will be disappointed if you're expecting a book written with flawless grammar.
And you'll be disappointed if you're expecting all the Black characters to be presented in a pristine, "noble-minded" manner.
You're also sure to be disappointed if you're expecting a big book.
Maybe I enjoyed this book a lot because I did not have any expectations from it (I was just curious as to what the author would do with such promising material). And I believe that if you approach this book based on its premise (a brief glance in the life and mentality of a bi-racial woman growing up in her White half-sister's shadow during the reconstruction era) rather than that of GWTW (essentially, a love story), then you might not be as disappointed as some of the other readers.
Just to clear up a few things:
* The heroine's grammar is inconsistent as a reflection of her dual nature; she is both educated (her White side) and "cultural" (her Black side). She has consistently flowed in and out of both worlds and her writing style presents that duality perfectly. The same explanation goes for the title of the book as well: ebonics is how many Black people spoke back then and Randall's usage of it is another way to emphasize Cynara's odd relationship with Scarlett (as her sister, saying exactly the same thing, only from a different perspective and in a different manner of speech - basically a metaphor for the entire book).
* Slavery in the U.S. was so... harsh? (I'll just leave it at that word) It is ridiculous to think that slaves didn't develop some very tough psychological traits to deal with the inhumanity. That some slaves were mean? manipulative? brainwashed? maybe even evil? Yes! That is believable. And Randall does not cut her Black characters any more slack than she does her White ones. (And why should she? There are historical accounts of slaves snitching on those planning to run away! Stuff like that happened!)
* Finally, a parody can be humorous OR satirical - it does not have to be both and considering the content of the book, I for one am overjoyed Randall stuck with satirical. I feel that too much humor would have demeaned the book, presenting it merely as some sort of "joke".
As far as I'm concerned, the funniest part of the book is... well, the book itself, the concept that there is not only "another point of view" of Scarlett's life, but that this is in fact the more realistic one. What panache Randall! Bravo! This book had me thinking long after I'd put it down.
I do wish it'd been longer tho...
Amazing, witty, and impressive May 3, 2008
This book is amazing--the underside of the antebellum and Reconstruction American South. Randall has taken a book which has long occupied a central place in America's culture, and turned it inside out. What the reader gets here are the texture and emotions of the life of a mulatto slave girl who is Scarlett O'Hara's half sister. The characters of "Gone With The Wind" are given new, and surprising, glosses on their personalities. While liberties are taken with Mitchell's famous book, "The Wind Done Gone" is a book that needed to be written, and I admire Alice Randall for having the wit, and the nerve, to do it. Randall delineates the life of a smart, observant mulatto slave as she negotiates the complexities of living amidst the old South's "peculiar institution."
I feel this book, for all that it's labeled a "parody," (due to legal ramifications) in a way completes the story Mitchell wrote. This is an aspect, and viewpoint, of American history that more readers could become familiar with, and "The Wind Done Gone" is a wonderful place to start.
 Lousy March 3, 2008
1 out of 3 found this review helpful
I was looking forward to a "slaves" point of view. But this is just a "poor me" book. And if she was educated and used big words why did she still talk like a field hand. I think this was poorly written, more like a joke. What a waste of paper. Read Scarlet and Rhett's people they are excellent. I've read a lot of Civil War fiction and the fact that the house slaves knew everything and were able to manipulate some situations is not news to me. Just because the whites thought they were barely more than animals doesn't mean that given the chance they weren't smarter than their owners. I wish black Americans could look back and see how much their part in history has shaped who we have all become and be proud of their heritage. We've become a great nation and it's people should be proud.
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